Australia is already a strong services economy with proven strengths in the financial sector, education, tourism and health.
The new national broadband network will play an important role in enabling and extending each of these sectors, allowing us to develop innovative systems we can take to the world.
To take full advantage of the potential we must begin with the end in mind, applying strategic and visionary thinking to decide how the network will be used and the services that will be delivered, as well as the education needed to allow all Australians to take full advantage of it.
ACS telecommunications board director Professor Reg Coutts says we must understand what this network will mean both for consumers and business in accessing services for health, education, social networking and entertainment, as well as the capacity for organisations to use our distributed skilled innovative workforce more effectively through teleworking.
The need for strategic thinking has also been highlighted by the National ICT Industry Alliance.
"There has been a massive focus on the infrastructure, and that's clearly important, but the process should be driven by why we're doing it," NICTIA president Anne Hurley says.
"The overriding perspective should be the strategic view of what the network will do to drive enhancements to how we live and work, and how we are going to ensure that people know how to use it," she says.
This issue was underscored earlier this year by the release of the Connectivity Scorecard, produced for Nokia by Professor Leonard Waverman of the London Business School.
The study measured 30 indicators of connectivity and its contribution to economic growth and positive social outcomes.
Surprisingly, it found that none of the world's best connected countries are exploiting their communications technologies to the full.
The highest scoring nation, the US, achieved 6.97 out of a possible 10, while Australia was back in seventh place on 5.93.
Professor Waverman says it should be possible for any developed country to score a 10, but the average score of most developed economies was just five.
"This means the world at large is using just about half of the ICT infrastructure that is in place," he says.
The key message the ACS takes from this is that we must get full advantage from the ensure this important investment Australia is preparing to make in building a national broadband infrastructure.
We strongly believe that for the investment of $4.7 billion to yield optimal outcomes, it is as important to start thinking about how we are going to use the pipe as actually laying the pipe.
We need an innovation agenda to kick off in parallel with the network building that focuses on the sorts of systems that could be made available on this superhighway, which will be 40 times faster than the current one.
Also, since broadband networks are the foundation layer of the digital economy, they will become a vital piece of our national infrastructure.
Potential threats to this infrastructure are not limited to cyber-warfare and cyber-crime.
Professional malpractice is likely to increase in the current unregulated technology environment. Unless governments join industry groups and businesses in creating a more robust profession, it is only a matter of time before one or more of these threats are realised and cause serious market failure.
We must continue to compare ourselves with other OECD countries to ensure that we maintain or improve our ranking of 25th in bandwidth and 17th in speed during the five-year execution of this important project.
Australians have a reputation for being effective users of technology. The next step is to become more innovative users of technology, with local suppliers, small and medium businesses, universities and researchers combining their skills to create systems that meet the needs of international users.
The ACS looks forward to working with the Government to develop a clear vision, along with key policies and strategies, that will provide a framework for the national broadband infrastructure and ensure its success in enabling Australia's digital future.
This will fulfil the vision of our prime minister and his Government to build long-term economic prosperity beyond the mining boom.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Kumar Parakala
Quelle/Source: Australian IT, 15.07.2008
